Book Review – Birthday Pie by Arthur Wooten

(From Amazon) When Lex Martindale, a New York City writer, goes home to celebrate his birthday and say goodbye to his dying father, he struggles with whether or not to share with his eccentric Southern family news of his own life-threatening situation. As we travel through seventy years of the Martindales’ rich and colorful history, unearthing forbidden loves, shattered hopes and tenacious dreams, we realize that this reunion is a volatile turning point in all of their lives. But as anger, resentments and jealousies erupt to the surface, it’s their laughter and irreverent sense of humor that prevails allowing for a quiet healing in this bittersweet, moving portrait, of the all-American family.

Birthday Pie is the novel adaption of a play that Arthur Wooten wrote in 1991. Its release earlier this month as Arthur’s third novel marks the next stage in an eventful journey for Birthday Pie which has been optioned as a film and performed on stage . Being a huge fan of novels set in the American South, this really was a must read for me and I was delighted when Arthur offered to send me a copy to review.

Although short at only 200 pages, Birthday Pie has depth, complexity and a cast of quirky characters that really do jump off the page. I was instantly pulled into the life of the Martindale family and I loved the way the story moved between the present and the past to fill in the background of how the Martindales came to be the clan that they are. Each chapter is split into a number of short scenes focusing on the lives of the different members of the Martindale family as they prepare for and eventually come together to celebrate Lex’s birthday at the family home in Ragland North Carolina.

Birthday Pie is laugh out loud funny but also heartbreaking; a real roller-coaster of emotions that never becomes depressing and demonstrates all of the different facets of human nature taking in terminal illness, sibling rivalry and infidelity along the way with a good dose of drama. The interactions Lex has with his family; their reactions to the birthday fuss for him and their reactions to each other are fascinating and give insight into the workings of what is actually a very close knit family. My favourite characters were Lex’s young niece, Mattie Lee Martindale whose constant mixing up of her words made me giggle and I loved Lex’s grandmother, Anastasia too with her pearls of wisdom and eccentric dress sense.

The novel is written in the third person allowing Wooten to get right inside the minds of his characters to show their strengths and failings. The short scenes give insight into each character’s life with precision. Wooten gets to the heart of each and every one of the Martindale clan so that as a reader I really felt like I knew them and I was sad to leave them as the novel ended. As I finished reading Birthday Pie, I couldn’t help wondering what happened next to the wonderful cast of characters and I hope Arthur decides to revisit them one day as I’m sure there is more to tell of their story.

4/5

Birthday Pie is out now and I’d like to thank Arthur Wooten for sending me a copy to review.

You can find out more about Arthur and his books at: http://www.arthurwooten.com/